‘What is silly about that?’ he asked. ‘Unless…’
Then he pouted as if suddenly struck by something. How was it fair that a man had lips to-die-for like that?
‘Unless?’ Keeley asked.
‘Unless you would rather send her a photograph of… Alec Benjamin?’
Keeley laughed. ‘Do you even know who Alec Benjamin is?’
‘I have had a crash course this afternoon. Jeanne hacked into my Spotify. I could probably sing you all the songs.’
She smiled. This was a man she definitely felt so comfortable with. ‘Would you mind?’ She quickly continued. ‘The photo… not the singing. Unless you want to.’
‘Of course,’ Ethan said. ‘A selfie. Come on,’ he encouraged. ‘Here, with the Palais Garnier in the background.’
The Palais Garnier was a magnificent sight. Golden-coloured effigies stood proudly at the forefront of the roof, with smaller busts in-between and a large green figure at its centre. Keeley was sure Noel would have been able to tell her the history behind it all, but this time she would have to refer back to her guidebook when she returned to the hotel. Sometimes thumbing the pages of a reference in the moment killed the magic. She took her phone from her bag and turned the screen around to capture them both, lining their faces up and eager to get some of the best bits of the statuesque building behind. She felt Ethan slip his arm around her shoulders and draw her closer, that gorgeous, wide smile, appearing on those lips…
‘For your friend,’ Ethan said, still smiling for the pose.
‘Erica,’ Keeley breathed, widening her smile too. She pressed the button and committed the picture to her camera roll.
Ethan let a breath go then, cupping his hands together and blowing into them.
‘Is everything OK?’ Keeley asked him. ‘You haven’t told me where we’re going.’
He grinned. ‘You are right. I have not.’
‘You seem nervous,’ Keeley said. He did seem nervous, or perhaps it was more a case of nervous energy.
‘Maybe a little,’ he admitted.
‘Why? What’s all the secrecy?’
‘Come, I have something to show you. But first, we are going to play a game.’ He took her hand in his, squeezing it a little. It was both comforting and somehow super-sexy. A game? She hoped it wasn’t the kind found beneath the pages of an erotic novel. She might have felt liberated by the complete abandonment of her apologise-for-everything Britishness in their love-making last night but she wasn’t sure bedroom games were quite her bag this soon…
‘Now you look a little scared,’ Ethan remarked. ‘It is nothing difficult, I promise.’
Keeley was trying not to think of all the ‘easy’ half-hours she had spent with items labelled ‘body contouring’. Perhaps she should have asked more questions of Rach prior to this. She had left her friend in the hotel suite, zinging between emails to a salubrious House 2 Home client she apparently had to give attention to even though she was on holiday and ringing down to reception deliberately asking for things not on the room service menu and intentionally calling Antoine Antonie.
‘OK,’ Keeley answered a little stiffly.
‘Hey,’ Ethan said, putting his arm around her and pulling her gently against him. ‘If you are not one for surprises, I can tell you. I do not want you to feel… less than “comfortable” about tonight.’
He had purred the word ‘comfortable’ and the happy sparks were back.
‘I trust you that it’s going to be a surprise I’m going to like,’ she answered him.
‘Je promets,’ he whispered, his mouth close to her ear. ‘I promise.’
*
Ethan’s heart was somewhere between his throat and his ears as he pushed open the ornate iron gates that led into the rear entrance of Perfect Paris Opera. This was one of the reasons this hotel was so popular. Its fabric seamlessly blended between being a large building fit for hundreds of guests, but also with the quaint, appealing throwback features hinting at the villages of France and the countryside. And Ethan was going to make it his mission to do the same for the internal décor going forward. Tonight he had made this garden courtyard just for them, with himself and Jeanne working hard all afternoon to get it perfect. He looked to the windows of the hotel then, imagining the girl and Bo-Bo peering out at them. There was no evidence of this yet.
‘Oh, Ethan!’ Keeley breathed. ‘This is… beautiful.’
Her tone was exactly what he had hoped for. He watched her walk into the middle of the walled courtyard, the trailing ivy still present on the rough, old brick walls at this time of year, strings of tiny golden lights interwoven amid their vines. There were candles everywhere. Plain Mason jars holding tealights sat all along the path to the main building some also perfectly positioned on the small bistro table set for two – a bottle of red wine breathing in its centre – and finally there were half a dozen more marking out the perimeter of the petanque court. Lights on the wall focused their attention on the strip of sand and shining silver balls.
‘What is this place?’ Keeley asked. ‘Is it another part of hidden Paris no one knows about?’
‘Non,’ Ethan answered. ‘This is… one of my hotels.’
Keeley turned around then, her gaze moving from the twinkling romantic garden he had made, to him. ‘Is it really?’
He nodded, at last feeling nothing but the deepest pride in what he and Ferne had achieved over the time they’d had together. ‘It is.’ He swallowed. ‘Is it… what you imagined?’
‘Gosh,’ Keeley said. ‘I don’t know what I imagined. I suppose I thought it might be a little like the hotel I’m staying in. Although things there have changed a little bit over the past few days.’
‘They have?’ He held his breath, wanting her to say the changes were all for the better.
‘Yes,’ she answered. ‘The bread is much much nicer and the too big Christmas tree in the lobby has gone. Now it’s one a little less dramatic.’
She did approve. But he didn’t want to say anything yet. He wanted the interior of this hotel – the one he had put his heart and soul into today – to be another complete surprise to her… together with his proposal.
‘So,’ he said, spreading his arms wide, ‘a good surprise? A garden in the city, a little red wine and a game of petanque.’
She was smiling. ‘I’ve never played before. You are going to have to teach me.’
Her words thrilled him. He wanted to teach her many things. She had taught him a few things last night. She had taught him that sex could be so far removed from anything he had experienced before that it was almost another act entirely. There had been moments during the day when he had recalled a snapshot from their night together and his own lack of self-preservation, the freedom of his heart, had astounded him all over again. He had loved longer, harder and deeper last night than he had ever thought possible. And their lovemaking had most definitely been as much about the togetherness of their minds, hearts and souls as it had been about their bodies. Maybe even more so…
‘But of course,’ Ethan told her, stepping towards the sand. ‘Come.’